Part III

ROMAN ARCITECTURE

Part II

In Roman architecture there were three types of 1) _____: the domus; the insula, and the villa.

The domus, or town house, consisted of 2) _____ of rooms grouped around a central hall, or atrium, to which were often added further suites at the rear, grouped around a 3) _____ court, or peristyle. In Rome the chief examples of domus are the house of Vestals in the Forum in Rome and that of Livia on the Palatine Hill.

Great blocks of flats or 4) _____ were called insulae. Excavations at Ostia, Italy, have revealed the 5) _____ of these blocks. Planed on three or four floors with strict regard to economy of space, they depended on light from the 6) _____ as well as from a central 7) _____. Independent apartments had separate 8) _____ with direct access to the street.

The Latin word villa pertained to an estate, complete with house, grounds, and 9) _____ buildings. Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli, began about AD 123, was a sumptuous 10) _____ with parks and gardens on a large scale.

court, tenements, houses, residence, suites, colonnaded, subsidiary, exterior, entrances, design

11 Fill in the gaps with derivatives of the words in capitals:

The Romans were great 1) _____ and engineers famous for their factories, roads, aqueducts and bridges, grand thermae and amphitheatres, theatres and temples. The 2) _____ surviving circular temple of antiquity, and in many respects the most important Roman building, is the Pantheon in Rome. It consists of rotunda about 142 feet in diameter 3) _____ by concrete walls 20 feet thick, in which are alternate circular and rectangular niches. Light is admitted through a central 4) _____, or oculus, about 28 feet across, at the crown of the dome. The largest and most important amphitheatre of Rome was the Coliseum, built by the emperors Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian in about AD 70/75 -85. Covering six acres (2.4. hectares), it had seating for about 50.000 spectators, and its 80 5) _____ were so arranged that the building could be cleared quickly. The whole is 6) _____ of concrete, the exterior faced with travertine and the interior with precious marbles. Other important amphitheatres are those at Verona, Italy; Pula, Yugoslavia; and Arles, France. 7) _____ thermae were more than baths. They were immense 8) _____ of great magnificence, with facilities for every gymnastic exercise and halls in which 9) _____, poets, rhetoricians, and those who wished to hear them gathered. The best preserved are the Baths of Caracalla (begun c. AD 217), which covered an area about 1.000 feet square, and those of Diocletian (c. AD 298-306), with 10) _____ for 3.200 bathers.

BUILD GREAT SURROUND OPEN ENTER BUILD IMPERIUM ESTABLISH PHILOSOPHY ACCOMMODATE

12 Choose the right term for the following definition:

1. town-house	a) forum	b) domus	c) basilica
2. central hall	a) villa	b) rotunda	c) atrium
3. block of flats	a) insula	b) order	c) thermae
4. suburban or country house	a) interior	b) villa	c) domus
5. a colonnaded court	a) façade	b) peristyle	c) thermae

LISTENING

13 “Architecture and Design” Louis Kahn.

Listen to the information twice and answer the questions given (1-5):

1. What is Louis Kahn famous for?

2. What materials did he work on?

3. What is the core of design?

4. What is the unique work of Kahn?

5. Can you describe the building given?

VIDEO

14 Watch the video and present the main idea of each episode in 4-5 sentences using the expressions from Appendix 2.

WRITING

STRATEGY POINT: Tackling detail questions When trying to answer detail questions, follow these steps: · Make sure you understand the question fully. · Scan the text to find the part where the answer is contained. · Highlight the relevant part. · Paraphrase the relevant parts and make your answer as brief as possible.

Summary Writing

15 a) Read the following passages and underline the parts where the answer to each of the following questions is contained:

1. What are remarkable monuments of Egyptian and Roman architecture?

2. What are they famous for?

3. What examples of personification are given in the text?

4. How are these texts interrelated?

FACTS about ROMAN PANTHEON The Pantheon of Rome is a marvelous example of ancient Roman architecture. This building has been in use for over 2000 years. The Roman Pantheon is famous for its design, size and its huge dome. The Roman Pantheon is a massive circular structure made with bricks. Corinthian-style columns support the gabled roof in the front. The most amazing feature of this monument is its huge concrete dome. The Pantheon dome was thought to be largest, until the recent times. The doors are made of bronze and are over 26 feet high. The doorway of the Pantheon is about 40 feet high and 20 feet wide. A point worthy of mentioning is, the Greeks greatly influenced the Roman art and architecture. The hemispherical dome of this monument exhibits the charm and influence of Greek architecture and also the Greco-Roman idea of the "Cosmos". There is an oculus in the center of the dome known as the "Great Eye", which opens to the sky. The dome is intricately designed and decorated with bronze rosettes. The coffers of the dome were considered as the vault of the Heaven. The historians believe that the "Great Eye" symbolized that the Heavens guarded the entire Roman Empire. The architectural harmony of this awe-inspiring structure is well balanced and it was achieved by keeping the diameter of the dome equivalent to its distance from the floor. The weight of the dome was greatly reduced by the sunken panels known as the coffers and also by using cement made from pumice and pozzolanic ash (volcanic ash).

GREAT SPHINX From the 15^th century AD European travelers carried home tales of the mysterious and amazing remains of the civilization of Egypt. One of its most remarkable monuments, which still evoke this sense of awe and might, is the Great Sphinx of Gizeh, the oldest surviving sphinx, dating from c.2550 BC, carved from a rock with the crouching body of a lion and a human face. The concept of the king as a powerful lion goes back into prehistoric times. The sphinx was a natural development, personifying the divine power of the king as a force protecting his land and repelling the power of evil. The great Sphinx is one of the most distinctive and dominant of all the images of ancient Egypt, which is perhaps the source of the misconception that sphinxes are of central importance in Egyptian culture. However, those that have survived are among the most impressive as well as intriguing examples of Egyptian sculpture.

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